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The Year of Bold

As a kid, I was a pure Star Trek fan. Don’t get me wrong, Star Wars is definitely great, but Star Trek will always hold a special place in my heart, I think because it reminds me of my entire family sitting around together watching the episodes unfold each week. Popcorn and nachos with melted Velveeta were our special treat as we became caught up in Spock’s logic and Captain Kirk’s bravery. My siblings and I loved watching the show together, even memorizing the opening lines and reciting them, “to boldly go where no man has ever gone before.”

That line could also be a great vision for the school year ahead, “to boldly go where no homeschooling family has ever gone before….” Somehow I always think each year will be the same, only with different material that we are studying. But truly, every year will always be different with new challenges, new ways of seeing things and stretching in ways never experienced before.

When I began homeschooling, I knew that first year was an important one for our family. I wanted it to be a great year, maybe the best year. I wanted it to be a year that allowed us to fall in love with learning all over again. Then, the next year was middle school and it was absolutely an important year. After all, who doesn’t appreciate that middle school is the worst? I was determined that this would be the year that changed that idea. Then came the year before high school, then high school; these are all important years. Here we are now in the junior year in high school and it feels like the mother of all important years. Another important year.

If I have learned anything from homeschooling, I have learned that every year is important. Also, I have come to appreciate that every year is unique, has its own challenges, and brings lessons all its own. Indeed, every year is monumental, because it is the year you have been given.

I want this year of homeschooling to be bold. I want to encourage my child to try new things, to enrich his mind, body and soul—to learn more than he ever thought possible, to spread his wings, take healthy risks, go deeper still in Christ. I want him to go after a bigger idea of how God has called him. I want him to know that life gets really good when we pursue God’s ideas for our lives. I want him to fail a bit too, because surrounded by a community of encouragers, this might be the best time to work through failure.

When we walk out our homeschooling year boldly, we truly have to rely on Christ for equipping. We have to press into Him and humbly come to our knees for His help. He becomes greater, we become less. We rely on Him fully for our daily walk.

For me, the homeschooling clock is winding down. We only have a few years remaining before we launch into whatever God has planned for us next. I want to live these last few years so well and so richly that our lives can’t help but pour out all the incredible learning and growing God is doing. I want us to walk out an abundant, wonder-enriched homeschool year that it makes people curious about what we are up to for God. I want to “boldly go” like the Star Trek line says. But more than that, I want my family to be changed—by the end of the year I hope we know the Creator deeper still, only experienced by being bold for Him.